| Autor: |
Novillo A; Centro de Educación Médica e Investigaciones Clínicas Norberto Quirno (CEMIC), Buenos Aires., Ladenheim RI, Galante M, Isola IM, Musi ME, Naguel V, Rodríguez P |
| Jazyk: |
Spanish; Castilian |
| Zdroj: |
Medicina [Medicina (B Aires)] 2008; Vol. 68 (6), pp. 437-41. |
| Abstrakt: |
The purpose of this study is to describe the limiting life-sustaining treatment process of patients admitted to a general ward. A prospective descriptive study was designed. The setting was the general ward of universitary hospital. Study participants were patients assisted by the internal medicine department during a 60-consecutive days period who had limitations of life sustaining treatments. During the study period, 402 patients were hospitalized, 62 (15%) of them had limitations of life support care. The median patient age of the last group was 86 years (78-90), 66% were women and the length of stay was 12 days (8-18). A low quality of life was the most frequent cause of limitation (69%). Information about the limitations was provided to 43 families (69%) and 8 patients (13%). The primary care physician participated in the decision in 50% of the cases, while the attending physician, the resident in charge, patient's family and patients themselves participated in 50%, 40%, 42% and 11% of the cases respectively. The decision of limiting life-sustaining treatments was recorded in seven patient's charts (11%). Seventeen (27%) patients with limitations died during the hospital stay while 44 (71%) were discharged. In conclusion, we found a frequent life sustaining treatment limitation in our patients. These decisions did not follow a uniform or systemized process. The need of guidelines to sort the medical and ethical challenges imposed to the medical team is undeniable. |
| Databáze: |
MEDLINE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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